INFORMATION
PHILOSOPHY
The Newmeadow Saratoga School experience is one of active involvement. Young children learn by doing, and the Newmeadow Saratoga School staff uses a "hands-on" approach. Activities that are enjoyable to children maintain their interest and provide an effective backdrop for learning.
All segments of the school day provide an intensive focus on the development of speech and language and academic readiness. The Newmeadow Saratoga School environment provides many opportunities for verbal expression using specific techniques such as verbal modeling and sentence expansion.
Children must develop self-confidence in conjunction with language skills. It is important for children to be confident using the verbal skills they have developed. Attention is given to the development of self-awareness and self-expression. A multisensory approach including cooking, movement, art, music, and games allow each child to respond with the full range of their language.
The use of language and the development of self-confidence are facilitated by social and play activities. Social development is integrated into all aspects of the program. Children are encouraged to play cooperatively, to engage in conversation, and to initiate and often lead group activities. Sharing, turn taking and concern for others is continually encouraged.
The acquisition of concepts and general achievement coincides with the development of language. Small group time includes the use of a variety of materials to develop skills in shape and color recognition, number concepts, letter recognition and language concepts.
Fine motor skills are developed through the use of manipulative toys such as puzzles, beads and blocks. Coloring, cutting and printing activities enhance small muscle development.
Gross motor focuses on the development of body awareness, strength, endurance, coordination, and flexibility. Motor activities include walking, jogging, climbing, exercising, ball/bean bag games, bike riding and tumbling. Newmeadow Saratoga School recognizes the importance of working with all aspects of each child's development. The various areas of curriculum complement each other to form a total program which provides for optimal growth.
The Newmeadow Saratoga School creates an environment
that fosters language, produces positive attitudes, heightens enjoyment of the learning process,
and prepares the child for future educational challenges.
- Classes (Special Classes, Integrated Classes, Nursery School)
- Speech Therapy
- Occupational Therapy
- Physical Therapy
- Psychology/Counseling
- Social Work
- SEIT (Special Eduction Itinerant Teacher)
- Nursing
- Related Services
- Evaluations
Every child is assigned to one of 10 classes. Every child receives what is designated by the school district and/or counties. Services are provided individually, in small groups or within activites of class.
9:00-9:20 Play
9:20-9:40 Circle
9:40-10:00 Snack
10:00-10:20 Movement/Gross Motor
10:20-10:30 Story
10:30-10:50 Fine Motor
10:50-11:10 Concepts
11:10-11:20 Movement Activity
11:20-11:30 Relaxation
11:30-12:00 Art
12:00-12:30 Lunch
12:30-12:50 Play
12:50-1:00 Circle
Each week a specific unit or theme is presented. The unit theme is incorporated into as much of the day as possible. This approach helps the child to experience language concepts in a variety of ways. The use of a multi-sensory approach helps a young child learn, reinforce and generalize new information. For example, if the unit is color, one day may be used to talk about the color green.
The following activities would correspond to the theme:
| Circle | Paint a green leaf. |
| Snack | Eat a green vegetable. |
| Language | Listen to a story about green snakes. |
| Concepts | Color green shapes. |
| Fine Motor | Dance with green ribbon. |
| Movement | Eat a green vegetable. |
| Music | Make a song about five green frogs. |
The unit activities are reported in the weekly newsletter to assure the parent
has the information to talk about the theme with the child at home.
Some examples of units are:
Self-awareness
Shapes
Colors
Numbers
Weather
Food
Family
Community Helpers
Senses/Emotions
EVALUATION PROCEDURE
Committee for Preschool Special Education Evaluation Procedure
Evaluating a child at Newmeadow Saratoga School consists of observation and testing of the child by the professional staff. Initially, the parent may be asked to engage in a ten minute play session with the child using a variety of toys. This serves to acquaint the child with the testing environment and allows the assessment team to observe the child’s communication skills with familiar adults. The evaluation occurs at Newmeadow Saratoga School and takes approximately two hours. Evaluation techniques and testing include the following:
The Special Education Teacher engages the child in informal play/social interactions to observe the child’s social development, ability to follow directions, attention span, spontaneous speech patterns, motor skills and general cognitive abilities.
The Speech and Language Therapist evaluates receptive language, expressive language and articulation.
Receptive language refers to the child’s understanding of spoken words, directions, concepts and questions. A variety of standardized assessment tools, parent report and information collected through observation during play are used to determine the child’s receptive language level.
Expressive language refers to the child’s ability to communicate a message using combinations of sounds, words and/or gestures. Attempts to engage the child in verbal interactions will be made through conversation/play, question and answering and use of standardized assessments. Results of these measures as well as parent information will be used to determine the child’s expressive communication level.
Articulation refers to the production of specific speech sounds. The child’s ability to produce different consonants and vowels will be noted and then compared to typical speech sound development according to the child’s chronological age. Assessment of articulation will be addressed at the single word and conversational levels with careful attention to occurrences of frustration. A clinical judgment regarding the child’s speech intelligibility (the listener’s ability to understand the child’s speech) will be made.
The School Psychologist uses a combination of formal assessment and parent interview to determine a child's developmental levels. The child’s ability to solve problems, how the child interacts with others (siblings, parents, peers, other adults), and the child’s ability to perform self-help skills (eating, dressing, toileting) are a few of the areas discussed. If the child attends nursery school or a day care center, the psychologist may schedule an observation of that setting.
The Social Worker is occasionally part of the evaluation team and shares parent interview and social history assessment responsibilities with the psychologist.
Information obtained by the psychologist and social worker along with results obtained by other members of the developmental assessment team determine the child’s current level of functioning. These results will be discussed with the parent immediately following the evaluation.
12-18 months:
- Talks nonsense words
- Voice goes up and down as if speaking
- Says "Mamma" and "Dadda"
- Understands most of what is being said
- Comes when called by name
- Imitates simple words (5-10 words)
- Can point to simple pictures such as "dog," "baby," "car"
12-24 months:
- Uses words to tell you about specific objects
- Begins combining two words
- Uses words such as "I," "me," "your"
24-30 months:
- Speaks in short sentences
- Names objects in books
- Uses many new words
- Points to 4-5 body parts
- Can say first name
- Knows some colors
- Expressively, has a vocab of about 200 words
30-36 months:
- Says first and last name
- Knows if he/she is a boy/girl
- Follows 2 step directions; emerging skills with 3 step directions
- Repeats nursery rhymes
- Expressively, has about 500-750 words in vocabulary
- Begins to count
- Answers who, what, where questions
- Answers yes/no questions
- Uses 3-4 word sentences
3-4 years :
- Talks about experiences
- Makes up stories
- Asks questions (why/when/where)
- Names 2-3 colors
- Knows difference between part and whole
- Understands idea of past, present and future
- Expressively has vocabulary of 1000-1500 words
- May count 1-10
- Uses 4-5 word sentences by age 4